Blacktail Deer Plateau Dissolving the seeds of a moment

As the forest fell completely silent again, Pied's thoughts turned to Kisu. The same snowfall that made the plateau look so lovely might be hampering his travels. She frowned at the thought, though her lips twitched slightly upward again in the next moment. You're anxious to see him again, she mentally accused herself. She didn't deny it. The idea of a possible romance made her belly tie itself into excited knots. Friendship could lead to courtship, which could lead to mate-ship, which could lead to pups...

The sound of a bone cracking snapped Pied out of her thoughts and she straightened her neck to peer ahead through the trees. Following eyes, ears and nose, she finally discovered the source of the noise: Zombie stood over the carcass of a deer, digging into its remains. Although she'd just eaten breakfast, Pied's mouth watered at the sight of so much meat and she immediately shouldered in beside Zombie, helping herself to the carcass without fully pushing the subordinate female off to the side. There was plenty of meat for both of them.

She ate her fill in less than two minutes, then backpedaled away from the carcass and licked blood from her pale muzzle. She almost asked Zombie if she'd felled it herself, yet simple deductive logic told the real story: her pack mate had found the deer already dead. Pied wonder why it had died, yet didn't bother herself much with the details. The meat was still relatively fresh and, even after they were done with it, there would be plenty left to cache.